What’s the Big Deal About Crystals in Space? Protein crystals are used in everything from pharmaceuticals to food chemistry to structural biology. But growing high-quality crystals on Earth is hard. Gravity introduces: Sedimentation Convection currents Impurities moving toward the growing surface In microgravity? Those forces vanish or are drastically reduced. This makes space an incredibly clean, slow-growth environment that’s perfect for: Uniform, well-defined crystal shapes Higher-resolution ...